(a) A Water Billing Adjustment Board is hereby created. The Board shall be composed of the Finance Director, the Service Director, the City Engineer and the Mayor. In addition to the authority provided elsewhere in this Chapter, the Board is authorized to adjust or reconstruct water bills to reflect a reasonable estimate of the customer's water consumption when records of the customer's actual consumption are missing or defective due to no fault of the customer. The Board may also waive penalties and authorize extended payment plans where the circumstances warrant. The Board may abate service termination and restoration fees when incurred due to fire, flood, or storm damage not the fault of the customer.
(b) The Board shall have no authority to forgive water bills for actual known consumption, except as follows: where a previously undetected water leak is discovered on the customer side of the water meter, not the fault of the customer, the Board may reduce the billing charges for the amount of water used to the bulk County rate plus twenty-five percent (25%) of the City's markup. The Board shall further be empowered to adjust water consumption where the Board determines that a leak is the result of negligence of the City.
(c) Reasonable proof of hardship and/or damage shall be presented to the Board by an applicant prior to consideration for adjustment.
(d) The Board shall make its ruling for an adjustment on an application of any water customer for an adjustment prior to the next quarterly bill date after having received the application. The decision of the Board concerning the adjustment or payment will be final.
(Ord. 2017-131. Passed 11-13-17.)